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Highlights at MIDEM 2009

MIDEM will host a growing list of industry talent for the 2009 edition, which runs in Cannes from 18-21 January. Concerts include folk legend Donovan, who will perform a unique acoustic session and will also participate in the Pschent evening along with Groove Armada. MIDEM's British event will feature special guests Paolo Nutini, Jamie Cullum, Seth Lakeman and Patrick Wolf. The electro night will feature Public Enemy producers Bomb Squad, Detroit Grand Pubahs and French act Benjamin Diamond.

The 43rd MIDEM will also pay tribute to the industry's most exceptional personalities and artists. Charles Aznavour will receive a "Lifetime Achievement Award" for a career studded with over 800 songs and sales of 100 million albums. The great Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi will also be honoured for his career at the 5th edition of the MIDEM Classical Awards. The founder of the Glastonbury Festival, Michael Eavis, will also receive a "Green World Award" in recognition of his work for the environment.

MidemNet will be celebrating its tenth anniversary, providing an opportunity for the international forum dedicated to music technology and new economic models to take a look back over the past decade with two of its key players: Eric Nicoli, former President of the EMI Group and current Chairman of VUE Entertainment and R&R music, and Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and now CEO of MP3Tunes.

Creating value through the artist/fan relationship will be the central theme of the 10th edition of MidemNet, which will welcome experts like David Eun, who oversees Google's content strategy; Courtney Holt, the brand new President of MySpace Music; Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), BlackBerry ; J.Y. Park, leading producer of a raft of Asian superstars including Rain, Wonder Girls and Jacky Cheung and President of JYP Entertainment; and Dr. Tero Ojanperä, EVP, Entertainment & Communities at Nokia.

This year's MIDEM conferences will bring together around 200 key decision-makers to talk about the industry's different areas of expansion such as live performance; independents; managers; images and brands; artist development; and for the first time this year, publishers, with a special dedicated event – the International Publishing Summit. MIDEM will also be welcoming Brian Message, co-manager of Radiohead, Faithless & Kate Nash and Steering Committee Member of the Featured Artist Coalition; Jay Marciano, President of Madison Square Garden Entertainment; André de Raaff, CEO of publishing company Imagem Music; Ralph Peer II, CEO and Chairman of peermusic; Michael Eaton, Business Manager for Eric Clapton; Bruce Flohr, Executive, Red Light Management/Partner, ATO Records; Simon Raymonde, Managing Director of Bella Union and former member of the Cocteau Twins; Ben Watt, Founder and Owner of Buzzin' Fly Records and Strange Feeling Records and former member of Everything But The Girl.

The Russia! Time for Partnership! event will throw the spotlight on Russia at MIDEM, with an opening night party featuring performances from national stars Valeriya and Sergey.

Programming for the second edition of MidemTalent will once again be promoting up-coming talent and artists with high export potential. The sidebar will feature American rock group Blue October; Columbian Monica Giraldo, a recent nominee for the New Talent category of the Latin Grammys; South African act The Parlotones, voted Best Rock Group in 2006 at the South African Music Awards. Other acts include John Shannon (USA), Hogni (Faroe Islands), Charlie Winston (UK), Ndidi Onukwulu (Canada), Sliimy (France) and Magnus Lindgren's Batucada Jazz (Sweden).

On 17 January, the NRJ Music Awards will also be celebrating its 10th anniversary at MIDEM, welcoming many international stars to the party.





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